A toddler was taken to hospital after a report that he had been attacked by a fox, police confirmed today.

The three-year-old boy was bitten on the arm while attending a party at Dorothy Stringer High School in Brighton, East Sussex, at midday on Saturday.

It is believed the child, who has not been named, saw and stroked the tail of an animal which was sticking out from under a temporary building when it turned on him.

Relatives took the boy to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton where he was treated and released, Sussex Police said.

A police spokesman said: "Police were called by South East Coast Ambulance Service at 12.30pm on Saturday 19 June after a report of a boy being bitten by a fox."

She added: "The boy was taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital by family, where he was treated and released.

"Police called the RSPCA and an inspector attended."

The incident comes a fortnight after nine-month-old twins Isabella and Lola Koupparis were attacked after a fox crept into their upstairs bedroom in Hackney, east London.

It is thought to have got in through a door on the ground floor of the smart three-storey house, which was left open because of the hot weather, while the children's parents watched Britain's Got Talent on television.

Both girls have since been discharged from hospital. The twins' four-year-old brother, Max, who was also sleeping upstairs, was not hurt in the attack.